3. A Pol House

Chapter 3: A Pol House

3 A Pol House

3.1

Planning of a Typical Pol House

The wooden traditional houses of Gujarat – an urban phenomenon – conforms to a general character in their organisation and articulation – i.e. narrow frontage representing composite wooden facade and sharing of common walls on longer sides; defined spatial components; bonding-timber construction; and densely articulated within confined settlement pattern known as pols – an an empiric empirically ally evolved labyrinths. These characteristics were the product of cultural pattern of time, caste division, male-female equation, exigenciess of joint family, social, and religious, exigencie r eligious, also contingent to climatic and structural requirement. requirement.

Fig. 3.1: Ground floor plan of a pol house Source: CEPT Source: CEPT Library The primary spaces of the house were identified by particular names; not in conjunction with their allocated functions. Proceeding from the street-to-house level, the entrance is defined by a narrow raised plinth with steps known known as otla or otta (front verandah) – a (front a prelude to the threshold of the house known as umro (innermost room).

Fig. 3.2: The otla

Fig. 3.3: The paniyaro, puja and the tanka in the chowk

Source: Author Source: Author

Source: Author Source: Author

Department of Architecture, SPA, Bhopal

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Otla – a communication zone between outsider and the house residents – encompasses a row of columns supporting the wooden facade which is worked out in accordance with the length of wooden member is varied in terms of its treatment and its width subjected to the status of the owner. Its elemental nature was highlighted by its carving which made it ornate and exquisite in beauty – as an image builder for the house. The otla leads to a buffer space mainly used as reception room and thereby nominated as baithak (sitting room), which was directly associated to the open-to-sky interior courtyard known as chowk – a nodal point linking all the spaces together. The interior facades flanking the chowk were richly carved like the frontal facade, befitting the main centre of the house. The chowk was attached to the rasodun (kitchen), paniyaro (place for storing drinking water), and the puja (prayer room) – all three being considered as sacred spaces. The chowk , therefore apart from acting as transitional and functional focus, also represented the r eligious centre of the dwelling. Parsal was a semi-open space connecting chowk and the living areas like ordo or ordoo, which was the last room, furthermost from the street and thus the most private room. They open in the chhindi (a narrow rear street) by the means of small windows that facilitated cross ventilation. The function of these rooms was for both storage and sleeping.

Fig. 3.4: The chowk

Fig. 3.5: The chowk, upla chowk, parsal with orado at the end

Source: Gujarat tourism

Source: Mahesh Kumar

The need for privacy in the business transaction (mainly in North Gujarat) led to the development of divankhanu, on the upper floor, which ultimately became sign of aristocratic and symbolized high status and wealth of the owner. The roof of these kind of houses were invariably sloping covered with naliyas (clay tiles), but some areas were also left flat (known as agasi) and are used for sleeping on summer nights and also for several domestic activities. A pol would get organised generally by people of the same social group or community. Thus the city characteristically grew very organically into a dense built fabric reflecting not only the culture of the local people but also the climate it was set in. Pols can be considered as neighbourhoods with strong response to the climate of Ahmedabad. Since they have grown up organically they respond to the social and cultural life of the ‘Amdavadies’ and also of their economic conditions.


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Fig. 3.6: Section of a pol house Source: CEPT Library

3.2

Architectural Elements in a Pol House

In Ahmedabad wooden construction was preferred to stone masonry which was common in western India during medieval times. The structural system for all dwellings was timber post or beam. The wooden skeleton had brick and lime masonry infill along the party-walls as well as the partition wall of the orado. Most other partition was in timber. The roof was usually hipped with timber purlins and clay tiles. Despite the party-walls, it is observed that the timber structural frames of individual houses remained independent.

Fig. 3.7: The roof stone slab resting on timber purlins

Fig. 3.8: The façade of a pol house

Source: Author

Source: Mahesh Kumar


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All exposed façades, i.e. the street façade and the chowk façade, were in timber with exquisite carvings depicting religious symbols, floral motifs and geometric patterns. In general, horizontality was stressed over verticality. Modes of timber construction and choice of timber for various elements were based on treatises such as Raj Vall abh , Brihasamitha , and the Parimanamanjari . The standardization of building components led to the uniformity of the scales and proportion, resulting in an overall cohesiveness of the residential fabric of the pols.

Fig. 3.9: Details of the front façade Source: ‘Naqsh’ published by CEPT


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3. A Pol House

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